The present invention relates to the field of hand held paint spray guns, popularly known as “cup guns” in which the paint being sprayed is typically carried in a cup or container attached directly to the gun for spraying coating materials such as paint and similar materials (collectively referred to herein simply as “paint”).
In prior art cup guns, it was typical to require a user to unthread a number of parts to disassemble the wetted parts of the gun for cleaning or service. In one type of prior art cup gun, a user was required to unscrew a spray tip using a circular guard to gain access to the wetted side of the spray tip and a swirl valve, and then the user was required to unscrew a piston locking ring or nut to release the remaining wetted parts including the piston, piston cylinder and paint cup. Once the parts were disassembled, they could be cleaned or replaced before being reassembled for spraying by reversing the above process.